And after a seven-game October unbeaten-in-regulation streak, the Rampage lost 6-1.

To the team with the worst record in the league.

In November.

If they drop two this weekend in Abbotsford by a combined 14-2 score, it’s time to dial up a witch doctor to whip up a potion or Samatha Stevens to twitch her nose..

There is something amiss with the Rampage in November, and until they do something, like win a few games during this 30-day stretch of the calendar, you got to think someone in the Chicago Wolves organization has a special hot line they use on Halloween to somehow bewitch the Rampage.

Will Pro Hockey Ever Get Some Love in SA?

It seems like every time the sport gets some serious media pumpage, the resident team decides to take the night off.

Even though less than 3,000 showed up to watch last night’s game, the Express-News ran a really nice, big as Bubba picture on the Sports section front page of the Rampage and their outstanding start and winning streak. Excellent job John Whisler!

But after Wednesday night’s performance, that sound you hear is the promotional air escaping from the balloon.

It seems every time hockey is primed to grab a front row seat in this town, the team allows the momentum to crash and burn for no explicable reason.

How cool would it have been if the Rampage won, 6-1 last night?

The paper could have run another front page story — Rampage Roll with Seven Straight!

Instead, you get a first time this season tiny graphic of TBone at the top of the front page, snorting a frosty steam visible on a frosty morn directing you to the latest stub of the toe — “Toronto’s 6-1 rout ends Rampage’s six-game winning streak.”

I couldn’t get to that story quick enough with that headline.

With the Cowboys and UT playing like the bumbling old Buccaneers and North Texas State teams of yesteryear, the Rampage could actually grab headlines and broadcast time.

Which harkens one back to the old days of San Antonio hockey.

Back in 1995, the first year of the Dragons, team ownership decided to forego the tedious, drop off the face of the map and media eye February Rodeo Road Trip the Iguanas endured, and scheduled 6 games in the Alamodome.

The sales staff (meaning everyone in the organization) focused on one game in particular against the Phoenix Roadrunners, the farm team of the Los Angeles Kings that played in a Spurs opponent’s town. A recognizable city…a big league city, as opposed to say, the Grand Rapids or Peoria or Fort Wayne.

Many tickets were given away in promotions to pack the place.

Over 18,000 people showed up.

Over 18,000 people sat in their seats.

Over 18,000 snoozed.

For most of the game.

The annual Home and Garden Show had more excitement.

While the support folks did their best to keep interest in the game, there’s only so many times you can light up the screen with “Let’s go Dragons” while the home team played like sleeping Puff the Magic Dragons, as Jamie Storr and the Roadrunners won 5-1.

The Dragon goal came in the last five minutes of the game with most folks already gone, wondering to themselves why people get excited about that thing they just witnessed.

No goals, no fights, no energy, no new fans.

For the players, I get it.

Many of them seriously think that if someone drops a puck at center ice, people will be in the seats to watch them play the game.

That works in Chicago, Boston and Toronto.

Those fans have been loyal over the years while watching wretched hockey — especially Maple Leaf fans.

But in San Antonio, Texas, the team has to realize that fans come with winning and playing exciting hockey, where the lamp gets lit and the punches get thrown.

Losing 6-1 to a 2-6 team isn’t going to cut it with hockey novices around here, no matter how many floating cows fall from the rafters or how many chuck-a-pucks are chucked.

The Rampage promotions staff has done a tremendous job in keeping folks entertained despite the team’s best efforts to keep fans away.

This is a critical time for hockey in this town.

The Cowboys stink.

The Longhorns stink.

What a better time to grab some headlines and the sports limelight boys?